Many were left puzzled by the film's cryptic message. Everything converges in a final act
that is truly triumphant and we're here to revel in its glory. This is the ending of
V for Vendetta explained.
The main character, known simply as V, wears a mask based on the likeness of a man named
Guy Fawkes. In V for Vendetta's opening sequence, we learn about Fawkes' foiled plan to bomb
the House of Parliament in the 15th century. Seems foolish to base your identity on that
of a failed rebel, but the film comes full circle. Fawkes was captured on the fifth of
November and the date carries great significance — V gives us a catchy bit of rhythmic poetry
to ensure the date does not leave our minds.
"Remember, remember the Fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot."
The mask's cheeky grin and stark colors implant a memorable image. At first it seems that
the mask is used for anonymity, but as we learn more about V, it becomes apparent that
his every word and action is full of meaning. It is not Fawkes' lack of success that is
meant to be remembered, but rather his intentions. The idea of freedom that drove him to act
is what we are meant to remember.
The government in V for Vendetta is run by High Chancellor Sutler, played by John Hurt.
The movie's portrayal of a controlling monarch seems less futuristic now that we are just
a few clicks away from having a president sponsored by Mountain Dew. While addressing
his subordinates, Sutler seems to rule with authority, but his actions show that he is
quite sensitive. When talk show host Gordon Dietrich airs an unauthorized sketch making
fun of Sutler, the chancellor is so upset that he destroys his glass of milk.
The controlling political party rose to power when a virus ravaged the UK and killed nearly
100,000 people. The pandemic allowed Sutler to win his election by an overwhelming majority
and take control of the entire government. While the country was terrified by the threat
of a virus, Sutler implemented curfews and restrictions on the general public. Fearful
citizens willingly complied and slowly but surely, strict government rule became the
norm.
Throughout V For Vendetta, there are glimpses of vans rolling through the city, listening
to people's conversations across town, logging them all into a database. The data is presented
to Sutler, who then instructs the news outlets regarding which stories to tell in order to
shift the collective public psyche.
"I want everyone to remember why they need us!"
The whole process happens at a terrifying speed.
When V hijacks the news station, the story is spun and released to the public within
minutes of its conclusion, underscoring the systemic prison of the mind from which our
hero is working to free the public. People can be killed and stories can be twisted,
and V knows that in order to rally the people, he needs to give them something more durable
to latch on to — and to do this, it helps to be handy with throwing knives and homemade
explosives.
The forceful hand of the Norsefire Party is the secret police known as the Fingermen.
These officers regulate the laws governing the city. They seem to work with impunity
and are overrun with evil personalities. Evey runs into two Fingermen at the beginning of
the film who are set to assault her in an alley and would have succeeded, had it not
been for intervention from a masked vigilante with a robust vocabulary.
The head of the Fingermen, a man named Peter Creedy, is the right hand to High Chancellor
Sutler. Not only do they subdue any political opposition, they also crack down violently
on anything they see as lacking in purity. Homosexuality and the Muslim religion are
among those things which result in a visit from Creedy. The gruff, remorseless commander
kicks down doors and quickly smothers his victims in a black mask, after which they
disappear.
Evey lost her parents to such a raid. Unfortunately she is forced to endure a similar experience
at Gordon Dietrich's house. After the talk show host airs his comedy sketch poking fun
of Sutler, Creedy and his men show up at his house and beat the comedian into submission,
then wrap his head in a black bag before dragging him off. For citizens, the entire process
is the primary source of fear for being anything but complacent in their prisons.
We never see V's face throughout the entire film. While we get bits and pieces of V's
past, we never learn his true name. He uses his own power of anonymity to spread an idea
throughout the population. V understands that in order for his vision of toppling the Norsefire
Party to happen, the power to do so needs to be put in the hands of the people. His
primary weapons are his words and a single image for people to connect with: the Guy
Fawkes mask and also knives. The self-professed vaudevillian veteran can't help but implement
his flair for drama, though; the hero's acts are accompanied by beautiful roses, fireworks,
and triumphant symphonies.
The closest we get to learning V's true identity is when Chief Inspector Finch meets up with
the hero and hears the whole truth their own government, not religious extremists, manufactured
a virus and unleashed it on its own citizens in order to gain control. Finch is a step
behind V the whole year leading up to the Fifth of November, and his disillusionment
with his own political party shows as he follows the trail.
After V saves Evey from the Fingermen, he asks her to accompany him to a symphony. She
agrees, and is startled to find that the music is accompanied by a destructive act of terrorism.
V blows up the Old Bailey building, complete with fireworks and the 1812 Overture blasting
across every speaker in London. News outlets quickly spin the story as a controlled demolition,
with some workers blamed for the unplanned use of fireworks and music.
Luckily, the news outlet has some light security. V takes control of the emergency broadcast
system and airs a message to the public, claiming responsibility for the bombing and sharing
in their feelings that
"There is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?"
The Fifth of November is set as a date for citizens to meet at Parliament and march against
the tyrannical government.
The entire act is ingenious. V doesn't beat his idea into people's minds through daily
repetition like Sutler. He implants the idea and then steps back, allowing the people to
process it on their own and come to their own conclusions. The idea grows over the course
of a year as the people get angrier at what their country has become.
V For Vendetta dances in and out of living rooms, nursing homes, and bars across London
to show the public's consumption of media and propaganda. You begin to see people's
growth while the story plays out — despite not even hearing some of them speak. The primary
personification for the growth of the entire population is focused on Evey. Her personal
journey helps us follow the public's prison escape on a visceral, emotional level.
While Evey is trying to escape the Fingermen raid at Dietrich's house, she is snatched
and black-bagged. A sobbing Evey is washed with a firehose and has all her hair cut off
before she's tossed in an underground bunker where she's kept in between interrogation
sessions. She stumbles across a scroll of toilet paper in her cell that has a biography
written on it by another woman who was imprisoned there. The story tells of a lesbian actress
who was abducted and sent to the detention center when the Norsefire Party came to power.
What she reads invigorates Evey: she stares down her interrogator, refuses to cooperate,
and accepts her fate.
"Then you have no fear anymore. You're completely free."
The shadowy figure in the doorway steps back out into the hallway before vanishing, leaving
the door ajar. A quick search of her prison shows that she is actually back at V's homebase,
and he'd been interrogating her the whole time.
While Evey is navigating her own personal transformation, the rest of the country is
reaching a boiling point. V fans the flames by mailing out a Guy Fawkes mask to every
person in London — hundreds of thousands of them. Their arrival cements the reality
of his words in people's minds.
One of the personalities we come to recognize in the various London living rooms is a young
girl with thick glasses who is visibly passionate about the entire movement. This girl dons
one of the masks and sets out to graffiti a propaganda sign nearby. When a Fingerman
spots her in the act, he shouts at her, causing the little girl to run. He draws his gun and
shoots her dead in the street.
The act causes a mob of angry citizens to surround the Fingerman while he arrogantly
flashes his badge and commands everyone to back away. The people of London have had enough,
and a wrench to the Fingerman's skull ignites the town in a series of riots that cause Sutler
to unleash a wave of military force to subdue the public. Just as Evey is no longer too
scared to act, the city's residents have also shed their fears and jump to action. The town
begins to fight back against military rule while they eagerly await the Fifth of November.
There are a few subtle nods to V's past throughout the film, and one of its most obscure comes
when he plays with Creedy's fears in order to get to Sutler. While biding his time until
November, V systematically kills the staff that worked at a detention center called Larkhill
— the main source of the human testing that helped create the virus. The facility's head
physician has her story told through a reading of her diary. During this story we pan across
several cells until we reach cell number 5 — marked in roman numerals by the letter
V. Each cell before reaching V's is marked in chalk by a big X to signify the death of
its occupant.
When V approaches Creedy to manipulate him into giving up Sutler, he tells the head Fingerman
to signal his agreement with the plan by marking his door in chalk with an X. Nothing the hero
does is without meaning. In a vague act of foreshadowing, the cruel lawman seals his
own fate by marking his door.
V is aware that a vacuum of power needs to be created. After a trembling Sutler is dragged
out of his bunker and delivered to the cloaked hero, Creedy himself puts a bullet through
the Chancellor's head. Following the act of betrayal, V reneges on their deal and kills
Creedy's entire crew, then strangles the head Fingerman to death.
With all those in power eliminated, the military personnel in charge of defending Parliament
are left without any orders. In probably the most futuristic act of the film, they all
hold steady as a mob of cloaked, Guy-Fawkes-masked citizens march towards them. The commander
of the defending troops orders his soldiers to stand down once he fails to receive any
orders. The mob washes over the troops and walks past them towards Parliament.
After his final confrontation, a bloodsoaked V stumbles back to the subway platform where
he last talked with Evey and collapses. He bleeds out in her arms, leaving Evey with
a train full of explosives and a lever. She places his body on the train and somehow finds
a large amount of roses to lay around his body in memoriam. Chief Inspector Finch finally
catches up to them and steps on to the platform with his gun half-heartedly aimed. The final
choice to set themselves free is left up to Finch and Evey.
Evey refuses to stand down. Finch lowers his gun and lets her pull the lever. V's death
does not dampen his flair for drama. Once again, a symphony blares across the city's
loudspeakers as the camera pans across a city center packed shoulder to shoulder with his
likeness. He delivers on his word, and Parliament erupts in a plume of rubble as the explosives
arrive at its foundations. Fireworks light up a sea of people who all remove their masks
one by one, revealing those we have connected with throughout the story. It is at this climactic
ending of V For Vendetta that the importance of V's anonymity becomes apparent.
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy."
By never revealing his identity, V left no single person to connect to the idea. All
that was left was the idea itself.
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